Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication device, an electronic timepiece and a wireless communication method.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, wireless communication devices for performing wireless communication based on Bluetooth (a trademark) which is a standard for near field communication have spread.
For example, JP-A-2008-005060 discloses an image data transmission/reception system for performing transmission and reception of image data by near field communication. In this system, a device for transmitting and receiving image data identifies a device which is a transmission source or a transmission destination based on device IDs assigned to devices, respectively. As an ID for a device, a unique serial number (a Bluetooth device address) assigned to the device during manufacturing of the device can be used.
This near field communication is used even between a wireless communication terminal such as a smart phone and an electronic timepiece. Even in this case, a Bluetooth device address (hereinafter, referred to as a “device address” can be used as a device ID. The device ID of the electronic timepiece is generated by encoding a unique serial number assigned to the device during manufacturing of the device.
In this case, a current wireless communication device such as a smart phone or an electronic timepiece performs mutual authentication with a wireless communication device which is first connected thereto. In a case where mutual authentication succeeds, the wireless communication device stores the device ID of the connected wireless communication device in its own storage unit. The process of registering information on a wireless communication device in a case where the wireless communication device is connected in the above described manner is referred to as pairing. Thereafter, when the wireless communication device is connected with a paired wireless communication device, connection is established without processing such as mutual authentication.
As described above, the device address of a wireless communication device for performing near field communication is generated during manufacturing of the device. Thereafter, the device address cannot be changed or updated by a user's operation or the like.
Some of the wireless communication devices for performing near field communication can be paired with only one wireless communication device. As an example of such devices, there is an electronic timepiece pairable with only one smart phone.
In a case of connecting such a wireless communication device to a non-paired different wireless communication device, unless performing an operation for breaking an existing pairing, a user cannot perform an operation on any other wireless communication device. The operation for breaking the pairing is an operation for deleting information device addresses stored in the storage units of the paired wireless communication devices.
For example, in a case where a wireless communication device is an electronic timepiece pairable only with one smart phone, in order to delete an existing pairing, three deleting operations are required. The first deleting operation is an operation for deleting information on the paired smart phone, such as the device address, from the storage unit of the electronic timepiece. The second deleting operation is an operation for deleting information on the electronic timepiece, such as the device address, from the operating system (OS) of the paired smart phone. The third deleting operation is an operation of deleting information on the electronic timepiece, such as the device address, from the application software of the paired smart phone.
Also, even in a case where the electronic time piece is pairable with only one smart phone needs to redo pairing due to a problem attributable to updating of the OS of the smart phone, in order to break the existing pairing, the three deleting operations are required.
As described above, in the configuration of a wireless communication device for performing near field communication according to the related art, in order to break a pairing, operations for deleting information such as device addresses are required. Therefore, convenience for users deteriorates.